Weaveworld

IX

ON THE MIGHT OF PRINCES

he Incantatrix did not look towards Shadwell when he entered; indeed it seemed she’d not moved a muscle since the night before. The hotel room was stale with her breath and sweat. Shadwell inhaled deeply.

‘My poor libertine,’ she murmured. ‘He’s destroyed.’

‘How’s that possible?’ Shadwell replied. The image of the creature was still lodged in his head, in all its appalling magnificence. How could a thing so powerful be killed, especially as it had already been dead?

‘It was the Cuckoos,’ she said.

‘Mooney, or the girl?’

‘Mooney.’

‘And the carpet crawlers?’

‘All survived but one,’ said Immacolata. ‘Am I right, sister?’

The Hag was squatting in the corner, her body like phlegm on a wall. Her reply to Immacolata was so soft Shadwell missed it.

‘Yes,’ the Incantatrix said. ‘My sister saw one of them dispatched. The rest escaped.’

‘And the Scourge?’

‘I hear only silence.’

‘Good,’ said Shadwell. ‘I’ll have the carpet moved this evening.’

‘Where to?’

‘A house across the river, that belongs to a man I once did business with: Shearman. We’ll hold the Auction there. This place is too public for our clients.’

‘Are they coming then?’

Shadwell grinned. ‘Of course they’re coming. They’ve waited years, these people. Just for a chance to bid. And I’m going to give it to them.’

It pleased him, to think of how readily they sprang to his command, the seven mighty bidders whom he’d invited to this Sale of Sales.

Among their members were some of the wealthiest individuals in the world; between them, fortunes sufficient to trade in nations. None of the seven had a name that would have meant anything to the hoi-polloi – they were, like the truly mighty, anonymously great. But Shadwell had done his researches well. He knew that these seven had something else in common besides wealth beyond calculation. All, he knew, hungered for the miraculous. That was why they were even now leaving their chateaux and penthouses and hurrying to this grimy city, their palates dry, their palms sweaty.

He had something each of them wanted almost as much as life itself: and perhaps more than wealth. Mighty they were. But today, was he not mightier?